Handwritten marks are often recorded in boxes, marking areas, or other fields on a transaction document. These handwritten marks take many different forms. For example, the handwritten mark may be a dot, an "X", a check mark, or the handwritten mark may be a scratching out of a mark previously made by the user. Because many transaction documents, such as lottery documents, restaurant ordering documents, standardized test taking documents, are utilized, it is necessary to be able to interpret such handwritten marks thereon.
Past efforts for interpreting such marks included aligning the marking areas in a number of columns on a transaction document. Individual sensors positionally aligned with the marking areas on the document optically read the marks. Misalignment of the sensors over the particular columns of marking areas produced incorrect readings.
Other optical readers are known in the art for certain uses, such as lottery documents, multiple choice transaction documents, standardized test form documents, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,307 to Dutton et al. discloses a marked card reader. The reader, as best understood, images an entire marked card and utilizes identification marks thereon to identify the type of card being read and various baseline information with regards thereto, such as the position of image fields. The identification marks also appear to provide a means for compensating for misalignment of the marked card as it is read by an imaging device. The compensation is provided by recalculating addresses of image data in memory such that a corrected memory compensating for the misaligned document is created.
A device like that described in Dutton et al. images the entire document prior to reading any information on the document. The speed of reading the information on the document is therefore, limited. In addition, the recalculation of addresses for the memory containing the image data to correct for misalignment, reduces the speed by which the document can be read.
Dutton et al., in performing the reading of handwritten marks on marked cards, compares the gray level value of pixels representative of the data on the card at potential mark areas with the gray level values for pixels surrounding the potential mark area to determine whether a mark is present or not present. Such gray level pixel value to gray level pixel value comparison consumes precious time in the reading process.
An optical reader capable of both handwritten mark recognition and predetermined character recognition, such as the recognition of numerals 1, 2, 3, etc., is useful in providing a tool whereby later processing of the handwritten marks can be analyzed according to certain recognized characters. For example, a lottery document having a number of boxes with handwritten marks therein may be analyzed after the marks are read according to later processing circuitry initiated by the optical recognition of certain characters on the same document, such as the number "99". The problem of time consumption associated with reading handwritten marks on documents is equally applicable to the recognition of predetermined characters on documents. In order to improve the number of transactions processed in a period of time, the speed and accuracy of optical readers need to be increased.
For the processing of many transaction documents, it is necessary that handwritten marks, or the interpretation thereof, be associated with signatures or other information about the person who placed the handwritten mark. Such association can be accomplished by user-carried information storage cards, for example, those known and used in connection with identification functions and for managing the debiting and crediting of customers financial accounts.
European patent application 0 370 925 discloses a programmable game entry card for use with a wagering system. The player card is provided with connection to a wagering terminal and the information stored in memory on the card can be accessed by the terminal. The card includes the user's status information, wagering amounts information, and other applicable information. Such information is updated when a card transaction is completed. The card allows the player to forego some steps in the wagering process. User-carried information storage cards as described in EP A 0 370 925 would need to be utilized on a regular basis to make them cost efficient. A simpler and less expensive card system accomplishing some of the tedious tasks of a lottery process or transaction process would be beneficial.
Transaction documents are normally printed in few colors in order to render the printing invisible to optical readers while allowing handwritten marks readable. If transaction documents were printed in more colors, enhanced use of the document may be likely, due to aesthetic appeal. Furthermore, various features on documents could be separable by means of making different features appear in different colors and reading those features. For example, marking areas on a document may appear in red, characters for identifying the documents may appear in green, etc. An optical card reader which could discern features printed in various colors would allow such documents to be printed in the various colors, enhancing flexibility of document design.
Prior systems attempting to read colored image data on a transaction document, spacially printed portions of the document in one color and other portions in another color. A light source associated with an optical scanner would utilize filters of various colors to achieve recognition of the various color data. For example, a green filter would be used to provide reflection of green light from portions of the document to an optical sensor and a red filter to reflect red light from another portion of the document to read the image data printed thereon. The problem with filtering the light is that isolation of the green and red filtered light at the boundary between the red and green image data is difficult and results in inflexible designs of the document. A new technique for rendering colored image data "visible" to an image processing system would be beneficial.
Increasing the speed of optically reading handwritten marks and characters is an important characteristic of a successful optical reading system. A system which dynamically reads both handwritten marks and characters eliminates the need for duplicate apparatuses. An optical reader having both mark recognition and character recognition could be used to facilitate document transactions such that users could eliminate tedious steps in a transaction process. Printing various features in different colors on a transaction document and being able to accurately read these features would facilitate perception and use by a user and allow flexible document production. A need exists for a transaction document reader which provides one or more of these characteristics.